1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic calculator and a controlling method which are conveniently used to learn a manipulation procedure to enter and display various function expressions and a manipulation procedure to draw graphics of the entered function expressions.
2. Description of the Related Art
In various fields are used electronic calculators of a compact size, so-called graphic calculators, which can calculate various function expressions entered by a user, display the results of calculation, and draw a graphic of the function expression thereby displaying the graphic of the function expression.
These graphic calculators are used in the field of education for a teacher to teach students for example how to calculate a function expression and how to study a trajectory of a graphic of the function expression when the graphic of the function expression is drawn.
For instance, when the teacher gives students a counting problem, and the students enter a function expression to their own graphic calculators by themselves to calculate the function expression and/or to draw and recognize a graphic of the function expression, the teacher demonstrates how to operate the graphic calculator, or prepare and provide the students with instruction manuals teaching how to operate the graphic calculator, and the students operate their own graphic calculators in accordance with instruction given in the instruction manuals to recognize the results of calculation or the graphic of the function expression displayed on the graphic calculator.
However, thought such graphic calculators have a wide variety of functions of calculating and displaying processes, the users are required to learn manipulation procedures to master these various functions. Therefore, there is a problem that even though teacher demonstrates how to operate the graphic calculator or prepares and provides an operation manual for the students, it is not easy for the students to master the manipulation procedures to use their desired functions.
In this regard, Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-186383 A proposed an electronic apparatus and a computer program for users to easily learn manipulation procedure of a scientific electronic calculator. According to the disclosure of the above Japanese Patent Application, using an emulator of the scientific electronic calculator installed on a personal computer (PC), a teacher executes key input manipulation to solve a problem, and information of the key input manipulation executed by the teacher and its explanatory information are registered in association with each other as an exercise supporting program. The registered exercise supporting program is transferred to the scientific electronic calculators of students via a communication network. Receiving the exercise supporting program from PC of the teacher, the students successively execute key input manipulations on their own scientific electronic calculators referring to the input manipulation information and explanatory information with the exercise supporting program displayed on the scientific electronic calculators.
As described above, according to the disclosure of the above Japanese Patent Application, the input manipulation information and explanatory information are displayed based on the exercise supporting program transferred to the scientific electronic calculators, and the displayed input manipulation information and explanatory information allow the students to easily execute key input manipulation on their own scientific electronic calculators. But the input manipulation information can be displayed only on electronic calculators having a function of guiding key input manipulations.
According to some functions of conventional scientific electronic calculators which have been proposed in recent, a cursor is moved on a display screen to indicate a position where a predetermined manipulation is to be executed, and the indicated position is manipulated, whereby a predetermined process is performed, or a touch pen is used to directly point a position on a display screen of a touch screen type with a transparent tablet covering the same display screen, thereby performing a desired process. The above conventional scientific electronic calculators have a problem that a conventional exercise supporting program for displaying input manipulation procedures do not always work effectively.
The present invention has been made to solve the problems involved in the conventional electronic calculators, and has an object to provide an electronic calculator and a controlling method, which indicate a position to be manipulated on a display screen to perform a predetermined process, thereby allowing a user to easily master manipulation procedures.